Sudan forms committee for implementing cooperation deal with South Sudan

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday issued a decree stipulating the forming of a committee to follow up the implementation of the cooperation agreements signed with South Sudan, official SUNA news agency reported. The committee, under al-Bashir's own chairmanship, will bring together in its membership top Sudanese officials including the vice-presidents, the presidential assistants, ministers of the presidency and some other ministers, the report said. According to the decree, the committee will follow up the implementation of these agreements, facilitating the work of its sub-committees after setting them up and charging them with tasks. On Sept. 27, Sudan and South Sudan signed a package of agreements on various issues during a presidential summit in Addis Ababa of Ethiopia. Witnessed by the members of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel on Sudan (AUHIP), the two sides inked three deals on cooperation, security, and post-secession matters. However, the agreements neither tackle the issues related to the oil-rich area of Abyei nor the demarcation of the border between the two countries. Al-Bashir and his South Sudan counterpart Salva Kiir Mayardit have directed their negotiating delegations to establish joint mechanisms for the implementation of these agreements South Sudan was officially declared independent on July 9, 2011, following a referendum in which around 99 percent of the southerners voted for its secession from Sudan.